The Whispering: A Haunted House Mystery(16)

So a number of agreements were made. The financial remuneration varied from paper to paper, but on one topic the editors spoke with the same voice. That was the matter of the censorship laws. Did I understand I must not write anything that might be construed as seditious or subversive?

I did.

And would I give my word as a gentleman (ha!) that I would not write or imply anything that might be regarded as propaganda or likely to incite anarchy?

I said politely that my word could be considered to be given, and could be regarded as my bond.

In fact I have met many anarchistic and even revolutionary-minded people who make delightful and stimulating companions, although sometimes inclined a little to bigotry and fanaticism, and curiously averse to regular washing, as if they consider their ideals too high-minded to be bothered about soap and water. For myself, I had then, and have now, no particular animosity towards the Romanovs.

I did have considerable animosity towards the miserliness of some of the newspapers employing me, though. The travelling costs turned out to be paltry, barely enough for even the most basic of train journeys. Indeed, at one point I began to wonder if this entire scheme might as well be forgotten, but the compulsion to see what was happening in the world, to know about it at first-hand – to record it for others to read – still had me by the throat as viciously as a wolf in a winter forest.

I should make it clear that my contempt for the meagre travelling expenses was not born from mere hedonism; I am perfectly prepared to sacrifice comfort if the cause is sufficient. What I am not prepared to do is travel in third-class railway carriages, where the only seating is wooden benches, where the washing facilities are non-existent, and where the only food is the greasy bread and fat bacon brought by other wayfarers for their private sustenance. It would have been undignified to ask for more money though, so before leaving I made a few judicious sorties into a number of rich homes. The careful selling of the items I removed provided funds for more acceptable travelling conditions, and I left Moscow in a first-class compartment, ate my meals in a well-appointed dining-car, and slept in the best hotels until I reached my destination.

My destination. That exercised me a good deal. Simply, I could not decide where I should go. The kaleidoscope of power-balance and of friendship and enmity between countries had been shifting with bewildering rapidity throughout that summer – so much so that I changed my mind half a dozen times.

But it was becoming clear that Germany wanted France. And to get France, the German armies had to take the neutral countries that lay between. Above all, they had to take Belgium – small, peaceable Belgium with its gentle defences but its key position. That meant my articles could only be written from one place. The place I strongly suspected was about to become the epicentre of the fight.

And so it was to Belgium that I went.

Michael had translated with reasonable ease to this point, but from a cursory glance at the next couple of pages it looked as if ‘Alexei Iskander’ had merely been making background notes about the opening moves of the war. The page was spattered with the names of Prussia and Austria, together with mention of the German Chancellor Bismarck and also the German Army Chief of Staff, along with a few references to the Habsburg Archdukes and Duchesses. It seemed safe to assume that most of these references were detrimental.

He was just thinking he would try to translate at least another couple of paragraphs in the hope of getting to Iskander’s arrival in Belgium and his meeting with Leonora, when he was pulled out of Iskander’s insouciant world by the realization that footsteps were coming up the steps from the underground room.

He went cautiously to the door and peered out. Luisa was emerging from the underground room, her eyes still with the same unfocused look, and her movements still disconcertingly puppet-like. She closed the door in the panelling, locked it, and returned the key to the drawer in the small bureau. Michael watched her ascend the stairs and waited until he heard her walk across the landing and open and close her bedroom door. It was just on two a.m. He closed Iskander’s journal, switched off the laptop, and went determinedly up to his own room, undressed and got into bed.

Surprisingly, he slept extremely well. He had expected the images conjured up by Iskander, as well as the trip to the underground room, to keep him awake, but the old bed was comfortable, and he did not wake until the soft bleeping of his travel alarm at half-past seven. It was a good feeling to realize the night had passed and he would not need to spend another one inside Fosse House.

Seen by day, the house was no longer the brooding mansion of fiction, and the storm had blown itself out. Thin sunshine slanted in through the old windows and painted a pale gold haze across wood and glass and silk. The silk was frayed, the wood dull and the glass grubby, but seen like this the house had a dim charm of its own, and Michael could sympathize with Stephen Gilmore’s longing to come home and to see the lamps glowing in the windows as he walked along the drive.

Last night, when Luisa had murmured about breakfast, Michael had at once said he would forage for himself, then make an early start in the library. Accordingly, he went along to the kitchen, where he made toast and ate a bowl of cereal. After this, he took himself and a second cup of coffee along to the library.

When he opened the curtains a faint mist lay over the gardens. The library windows looked across to an old walled garden, with a wrought-iron gate. Michael wondered if he could go out there to take a look later on. There was something intriguing about walled gardens – they were the kind of green and darkling places where secrets might linger, and where the enquirer was warned not to trespass, not to speak or even whisper, in case, in the words of the de la Mare poem, ‘perchance upon its darkening air, the unseen ghosts of children fare’. Seen at this hour, Fosse House’s walled garden looked as if ghosts of any age might congregate there.